The Presidential Inauguration Cake

There are only two official inaugural balls in Washington, D.C., this Monday, and Ace of Cakes chef extraordinaire
Duff Goldman is masterminding the cake for one of them–the Commander-in-Chief Ball, which honors military service members. His six-tiered confection will include the presidential seal and the seals of each U.S. military branch, hand-painted with red-white-and-blue fondant bunting and plenty of stars and stripes. And it’ll feature the some of the flavors Goldman’s Charm City Cakes has made famous, including red velvet, lemon poppy seed, pineapple coconut, and pumpkin chocolate chip, layered with Swiss butter cream.

How did the inaugural committee end up hiring you for this? Is the president an Ace of Cakes fan or something?Duff Goldman: Actually, Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but I don’t think it came from him. I think what happened is we have been doing a lot of work for the State Department lately, to represent the food of the United States and diplomatic functions and that kind of thing, and the last thing we did over the holidays was a big red-velvet cake for the State Department, and they loved it, they really loved it. It’s super old and neat over there because there’s all these portraits around you–it was Andrew Jackson that really stuck out for me. It’s such a beautiful place.

So right now, the image I have in my mind is that Hillary Clinton had a piece of your cake and, mouthful of crumbs in her mouth, immediately reached for her phone and called up Obama.DG: [Laughing] I think that’s what happened. Yeah, Secretary Clinton had the cake and made an executive decision, called the president, and said, “I’m making a solid here, this is amazing, this is what you’re getting.” On her cell phone, like those really cool pictures that were floating around a while back.

How did you find out Sasha and Malia are fans of the show?DG: When he was elected the first time, we were made aware of the fact.

Cake decorator Elena Fox putting fondant “bunting” on a cake layer

Have you made birthday cakes for the girls or cakes for the White House?DG: We’ve done cakes all over D.C. We did one really cool cake for Secretary Clinton back when she was first lady. We made a Wedgwood cake, looked like Wedgwood china. Beautiful, beautiful cake.

How did you come up with the design for the inaugural cake?DG: When we were first contacted, we were told the theme was honoring the military and their families. We wanted to honor all the military branches. We sent them 12 sketches, and they sent back notes on what they liked and didn’t. It was a collaborative process. That’s one of the things I love about the bakery. We gave them a lot of ideas because we enjoy making cakes, whether it’s more ostentatious or more elegant and just beautiful for something like this. It’s a happy occasion, but it’s also a serious occasion, and we wanted to make sure we got the tone just right. The cake is always the centerpiece, and in this case the president of the United States was going to be around. Eyes are always drawn to it, no matter what party you go to. At a wedding, you check out the wedding cake. At a birthday, you check out the birthday cake. If the party has a theme and the cake is off, it wouldn’t place well.

What were some of the ideas that fell by the wayside?DG: We wanted to stay away from anything representational, like a tank or a C-130 or a plane or a Jeep. It didn’t fit the tone, this piece of military hardware, and it doesn’t speak to everybody. Every branch had to be represented. I don’t think the Coast Guard even has tanks. Having a giant cake model of a tank? That would be a little weird. Plus you’d have to cut into it.

Hand-painting the sugar/glitter stars that will adorn the cake

So nothing crazy?DG: D.C. is a very conservative town, in the sense that all the wedding cakes in Washington, D.C., are very different from the cakes in Philadelphia and Baltimore. More traditional, more flowers. The cakes in other places are really goofy. It’s funny, becuause the very first wedding cake I sold was to a couple in D.C. It was a super mod theme, with scenes from Shag [the 1989 movie about Carolina shag-dancing in the 1960s] all over it. Ever since then, it’s all these conservative cakes with flowers on them.

In going with the military theme, is the Commander-in-Chief’s Ball cake to be cut with a military sword?DG: I don’t know, honestly, in this case. We do that a lot with the Marines. A sword is not an ideal cake-cutting instrument. With a smaller knife, the surface area is a lot smaller, so you have a lot more force. With a saber, your surface area is spread way out, 10 times that of a regular knife, so it tends to buckle the cake. We filmed a cake being sliced with a katana once, though, and that had no problem going through. That was really cool.

Was the first lady’s obesity campaign in the back of your mind during the process?DG: It wasn’t really. I think the first lady’s been very clear: everything in moderation. Obviously, cake’s not too healthy, but just don’t have too much cake. Don’t eat four slices, just eat one.

The team works to get the cake finished for the Commander-in-Chief Ball–but they’ll assemble the whole thing at the event to make transportation a piece of…you know what.

Were you given a list of things the Obamas and Bidens didn’t like? Allergy concerns?DG: They didn’t tell us what they didn’t like, but they told us what they wanted, which was … cream-cheese frosting, red velvet, lemon poppy, pumpkin chocolate chip with fudge frosting, and pineapple coconut.

Was that last one Obama pining for his Hawaii days?

DG: I was thinking about that. It might be a shout out to Hawaii.

If you had been asked to do an inaugural cake for a President Romney, what would it have been?DG: President Romney …. The flavor would be durian fruit. This isn’t political at all; I’m a lover of all things sports. Romney was at [boxer Manny] Pacquiao’s last fight [in Las Vegas on Dec. 8, versus Juan Manuel Marquez], and some people think Romney was a bad-luck charm–Pacquiao got knocked out. So I’d make him a durian-flavored cake. Durian’s from the Philippines, like Pacquiao, and durians smell really bad but taste really good. It would be kind of a joke but it would still be delicious.

So is the inaugural cake going to make it onto the show?DG: I don’t think so. We’re not filming right now. Problem with something like this is it’s so timely, when it doesn’t show till four to six months later, it doesn’t really play well. Whenever we film a Halloween cake, we film it in July. We’re going to film it ourselves, just internally.